On the eve of his 40th birthday, amid yet another injury setback and yet another compromised, disappointing season, Tiger Woods sat down with veteran golf writer Lorne Rubenstein for Time. The often-guarded, often-contemptuous of the media Woods spoke at length and with a candor he’s rarely offered in his 20 years on tour.

Woods seems resigned to the possibility that he may not break Jack Nicklaus’ major record and at peace with the uncertainty surrounding his future. He indicates that his role as father is much more important than world-beating golf at this stage in his career.

What’s not addressed: Steve Williams’ book, substantial questions related to his infidelity, either with Elin Woods or Lindsey Vonn, specific criticisms of his swings, and coach-switching.

Here are 10 of the most revealing quotes from Woods’ interview.

He doesn’t watch golf on T.V., and what he thinks of the coverage…

I can’t remember the last time I watched golf. I can’t stand it. Unless one of my friends has a chance to win, then I like watching it. I watched Jason [Day] win the PGA. But it was on mute. It’s always on mute and I have some other game on another TV.

It’s just, some of the announcers, they don’t even go on the golf course. And they look at a pin sheet from the booth, but they’ve never surveyed the golf course, even though the television coverage doesn’t come on until the afternoon. You have all that time to go walk the golf course, to see some of the early rounds, see what guys are doing, how they’re hitting it, how’s the course playing, is the wind coming up? All those different things that you could do. The only one who does that is Finchy.

His children are the most important things in his life…

The most important thing, though, is that I get to have a life with my kids. That’s more important than golf. I’ve come to realize that now.

It’s more important for me to be with my kids. I don’t know how I could live with myself not being able to participate in my kids’ lives like that.

He doesn’t go online or read what’s written about him and what he thinks of his critics…

One, you don’t listen to it. And two, in today’s world, you don’t go online.

They made their career being negative and being outlandish. They’ve made a career out of it. But that’s their take. They’ve almost created a character, per se.

Hindsight on marriage, infidelity…

It would be having a more open, honest relationship with my ex-wife. Having the relationship that I have now with her is fantastic. She’s one of my best friends. We’re able to pick up the phone, and we talk to each other all the time. We both know that the most important things in our lives are our kids. I wish I would have known that back then.

She talks to me about her life, I talk to her about my life. We try and help each other out on all occasions. And we work through it with the kids, the parenting program. She is one of my best friends now, and it’s all because of my kids. We’ve worked so hard, and I’ve shown her how much I love them. We’ve worked so hard at co-parenting, to make sure that their lives are fantastic.

What he’s told his children about his infidelity, divorce…

“Guys, the reason why we’re not in the same house, why we don’t live under the same roof, Mommy and Daddy, is because Daddy made some mistakes.” I just want them to understand before they get to Internet age and they log on to something or have their friends tell them something. I want it to come from me so that when they come of age, I’ll just tell them the real story. But meanwhile, it’s just, “Hey, Daddy made some mistakes. But it’s O.K. We’re all human. We all make mistakes. But look what happened at the end of it. Look at how great you are. You have two loving parents that love you no matter what.”

A common misconception about his pursuit of Nicklaus…

What was posted on my wall, about Jack’s records. It was not the majors, O.K.. There was one on there. It was the first time he broke 40, the first time he broke 80, the first golf tournament he ever won, first time he ever won the state amateur, first time he won the U.S. Amateur, and the first time he won the U.S. Open. That was it. That was the list. It was all age-related. To me, that was important. This guy’s the best out there and the best of all time. If I can beat each age that he did it, then I have a chance at being the best.

His perspective on tournament play…

From the very first shot, the first hole, you have to be that way [full-throttle]. It’s one of the things I was trying to teach Jason Day this year. The first hole is just as important as the last hole, and every shot is exactly the same. So you have the same intent, the same intensity. Nothing changes.

Golf is, what, five hours? You’re trying to tell me that I can’t go out there and focus that hard for five hours, when I’ve got 19 other hours to recover? That’s how I look at it. So I’m going to give it absolutely everything I can, everything I have, for this five-hour window. Let’s go.

His thoughts on his legacy…

The greatest thing that could happen is to not be remembered. What I mean by that is, the kids right now, they don’t know that Michael Jordan played. They see a Jumpman [logo] and they think, that’s so cool. I’m talking young kids, really young kids, single digits in age, they have no idea who Michael Jordan was, but the Jumpman logo is cool. Now, for me, they don’t understand who that is. My learning center, kids go through it and they don’t know who I am. They don’t know what I’ve done. But it’s a safe haven for them to learn and grow.

He a pretty “chill” guy…

I hate going into a place where you have to wear a sport coat. I can’t stand it. But also comfortable enough where you can wear flip-flops, which I like. That’s how I want it to be, and that’s how I am. I’m just chill.

How many clubs do you have to put a sport coat on, to go into the clubhouse? Or you can’t wear a hat on backward. Or shorts. At Augusta, you can’t wear shorts. I made the mistake myself. I know. I had shorts on, but thank God I had rain pants in my golf bag.

Why he plays the game and when he peaked…

I played for the hardware. I wanted to know that I beat everyone in this field, and I wanted them to know that they got their butt kicked. That to me was the absolute pure pleasure of competing.

By the time I was 11 years old, I had already won 113 tournaments. I peaked at 11, to be honest with you. I went 36 and 0 that year, never lost a tournament, all in California. And I probably had the cutest girlfriend in all of sixth grade. And I had straight As. No A-minuses. They were all perfect A’s … I’ve been trying to get back to that since.

These 10 points are just the tip of the iceberg of Woods’ most revealing interview in years (ever?) check it out on Time’s website.